Life has been busy for Cane the pit bull over the last two months as he built a following on his “Cane’s Bucket List” Facebook page.
Life has been busy for Cane the pit bull over the last two months.
There have been trips to the beach, a doggie day spa, an indoor swimming pool and as many parks as his owners, Anna and Justin Carter, can find.
All the while, Cane has built a following on his “Cane’s Bucket List” Facebook page, where he has more than 6,400 dutiful followers who “like” and comment by the hundreds and thousands on his many status updates.
The Bucket List was an attempt by his parents, as the Carters call themselves, to make the best of a bad situation. An oncologist diagnosed Cane with thyroid cancer in November 2014, and the disease has since spread to his lungs despite aggressive chemotherapy treatments.
The list includes items like “Tuxedo and bow tie pictures by the Christmas tree,” and “Paw it forward,” an effort to encourage others to adopt pit bulls like Cane.
Unfortunately, the Carters have had to fast track some of the Bucket List items.
“One of the last complete-able, if that’s a word, Bucket List items on his list is being able to swim in the spring,” Anna Carter said. “And the last couple weeks it was a little difficult for us to know if that’s a possibility.”
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Since the cancer has spread, Cane has lost a lot of his energy, according to Anna Carter, as well as his appetite.
“[We] basically call this our new normal,” Anna Carter said. “He has his really good days, and he has his really bad days.”
Dr. Lucie Chitwood, veterinarian at the Banfield Pet Hospital in Garland, told NBC 5 she’s fortunate to only see the good days.
“I think he looks fantastic, but then they tell me when he comes over here he’s so excited,” Chitwood said.
Chitwood was the first doctor to find Cane’s tumor last fall, and the dog has since been receiving his primary care from a specialist.
“You know [with] the medications that he’s on, the disease that he has, that’s of course going to make him feel bad,” Chitwood said. “But we all have hope.”
Hope has been what has helped carry the Carters through the bad days, in addition to the encouraging words and comments from their Facebook friends.
“We’re by far not alone in this journey, and there’s so many other families that are going through what we are currently going through and find comfort in the Bucket List idea,” Anna Carter said.
“Honestly we never would have imagined that we would have so many supporters in our lives. And we feel incredibly blessed.”
